


Finding you again (at the end of the world)

by Aki_of_Eyluvial



Category: The Maze Runner (Movies), The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types, The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: (hopefully), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, M/M, Mute Gally, WICKED is its own warning, WICKED | WCKD Is Not Good, adding more character as I write, mute character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-20
Updated: 2018-09-02
Packaged: 2019-04-25 10:19:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14376714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aki_of_Eyluvial/pseuds/Aki_of_Eyluvial
Summary: Gally, prisoner of WICKED after escaping the Maze, is tested, experimented on like a lab rat but that doesn’t make him silent, he screams and swears against them, weak threats  until Janson grows tired of that and takes a drastic measure. After all his voice is totally unimportant for what they’re looking for.----The long road until they settle down in a free paradise, and what comes after. Because when you've spent you're whole life as a prisoner being free is not as easy as you thought.(Bad summary, sorry!)





	1. Chapter 1: Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> English is not my first language so, please, be patient. I triple checked but surely something slipped my attention. Mistakes aside, I hope you will like this fic, seeing that there are not many Minho/Gally fanfic out there (and have read them all already) I thought I had to contribute.  
> My tumblr is https://aki-draws-things.tumblr.com, I wrote other flashfic on the couple (honestly, I write ONLY on them with sometimes some newtmas thrown in there) as practice. If you want to talk about that, headcanon, or anything really, hit me up, let's make this ship grow!  
> I'll try to keep the updates kind of regulars but I can't assure that.

 

#  _**Chapter 1: Prologue** _

 

Despite being bad, the situation felt strangely appropriate, like it was the only acceptable outcome for what had just happened. He never liked Thomas when he first showed up in the Glade, everybody knew that, what they didn’t knew were the memories that screamed loudly in his mind, warning him about this boy, telling him he was only trouble and suffering. And he was right, from the moment Thomas set foot in the Glade everything went awry, and later, like the Universe had a strange, wicked sense of humor, a girl arrived. Now he laid on a dusty floor, a spear through his chest and a gun close to his hand, still warm.

He suddenly couldn’t remember where he found the gun. Was it in the Maze? Or in one of the rooms he passed? Someone… Someone was there when he entered, his legs still carrying him because of the adrenaline, the pain radiating from his shoulder where the Griever had stung him, he couldn’t think, he couldn’t remember what made him run in the Maze after the others had disappeared, it was like something had possessed him, seized control of his body and led him all the way to the exit, he knew steps and corners he never saw before, he knew the way out, how to take the key from the Griever, he knew all of it. And yet he couldn’t understand how.

A man was waiting for him with a gun, he patted his shoulder– _the injured one but he couldn’t know, right?–_ and let him pass.

“ _Kill Thomas.”_ Something–s _omeone–_ whispered in his head, and with his vision getting increasingly blurred he went to meet them. He held the gun trained on Thomas.

“ _Kill him. Kill him. It’s all his fault. He did that to you all, if he dies everything will be fine once again.”_ His mind was struggling, fighting the voice exhorting him to shoot, he was trying to take back control of his body, uselessly.

«… Can’t.» He was shaking, his eyes filling with tears that found their way on his cheeks, in a different case he would have already collapsed on his knees but the body wasn’t his anymore. «They… They control…» He pulled the trigger before his mind could complete the sentence, a moment after he felt something passing through his chest, the pain spreading all over his body as he went down and the blood mixed with the dust on the floor.

It was _right_ , it was the only way everything could have ended. He had murdered a child, an innocent, certainly not who he was supposed to kill, not who he despised. _He killed Chuck._

The world went cold, the surrounding voices muffled and distant, he was sure he heard Thomas calling Chuck’s name over and over through tears, the voice ordering him to kill fell silent, another one started to whisper in a scared, panicked tone.

“ _I’m sorry. I’m so sorry… Oh God no… I didn’t wanted to do that, please. I’m sorry.”_ Gally didn’t recognized the voice, was it him? He didn’t remembered having these thoughts in that exact moment, but remembering things was becoming harder, everything in him was focusing on breathing and he was spectacularly failing at that. With every breath he dared taking he could feel the blood rising to his throat and dripping slowly on his chin.

Other voices arrived, they mixed with Thomas’ cries, some men dragged the Gladers away leaving behind only him and Chuck, he cast a last blurry look at Minho, he wanted to smile, ironically as the situation was, with him dying alone from a spear that the boy had thrown, he was grateful it had been him and not someone else, if he could die with him–his back at least–being the last thing he saw he would be fine.

Everything was getting cold, he could hardly feel his body at that point and yet he could almost feel his heart trying too hard to keep him alive despite every beat would only add more blood on the floor. Then, in the span of a thought, everything vanished into darkness, it was like falling asleep very, very slowly after a long day working in the Glade. Maybe he would meet the other again, if something like a Paradise existed, he would find Alby, and Nick, Ben, and every Glader that perished in the past three years. And Chuck. And he would spend the rest of eternity apologizing and trying to regain their trust and friendship, maybe he could even manage to explain that he couldn’t control himself. _Maybe he would have a second change and would wait for the others to join them._

“ _Not too soon.”_ Was the last coherent thought he had before darkness claimed him completely.

«Go get that body.» A man in a black jacket said before stepping on a Berg and sitting on the front while a crew of scientist and medics walked down. «He can still be of some use. Fix him.»

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are always welcome, even though it doesn't really happen much in here, let me know what you think.


	2. Chapter 2: WICKED

 

#  _**Chapter 2: WICKED** _

 

Doctors came and went from the room at all hours of night and day alike, every time they came out their faces were grim, hope slowly leaving their minds. They all had orders of course, Janson made clear that they _needed_ to save the boy, or at least keep him alive enough for them to continue the trials.  
«He’s a resource, he could be the key to save the world.» Honestly, the man never believed that specific words, but the boy was Immune so maybe he could be of some value after all. «You don’t want to lose such a chance.» And they didn’t, no one ever dared to speak up, too scared of the consequences. Nobody but one.  
«I understand what you’re saying sir, but he’s just a boy.» The doctor pointed out like everyone had forgot that minor detail, they didn’t of course, it was something they all remembered every time they entered the room, just a sixteen years old boy who looked much younger while laying unmoving on the bed. «His body is too weak at the moment, the condition he arrived in were critical, the spear went through his left lung. I won’t be too optimistic about the recovery.» He tried to be, everyone tried so hard to believe that he would be just fine after a few months, they swore an oath as medics; they were that before being scientists but it wasn’t easy anyway.  
«Fix him enough for him not to die during a simulation.» Janson ordered turning his back on him and walking away, not easy at all. The doctor ran a hand in his short hair sighing deeply before returning in the room.

The Gladers could hardly believe their luck, they had a room, beds, food and a shower with actual warm water, for most them it was a dream they never dared to have in the Glade. It happened casually the third night or so, while a guard was escorting them back to their room, while Thomas kept asking where Teresa was, muttering under his breath some curse whenever he couldn’t reach her mind, like someone had switched off their connection, they were passing in front of dozen closed doors, all with little windows usually closed too. That night one of the windows was open, maybe forgot open the last time someone went inside, maybe on purpose, he didn’t knew. What he knew was that he almost tripped and fell against Frypan’s back, all because he had to take a second look at the room behind the window. It was just a glimpse and the guard walking behind him would never let him go back to look closely. He looked around searching for any sign that could help him remember where it was choosing a crack that from the ceiling came down and stopped right on top of a fire extinguisher.  
That night he laid in bed, completely awake and unable to catch some sleep, he kept replaying what he saw, or he thought he saw in that fraction of second, he could see himself turning and looking at the small window every time he closed his eyes.  
“ _It can’t be.”_ He tried to convince himself turning on a side and facing the wall. “ _It’s a coincidence, a trick of the mind, someone has a similar shirt, it’s normal.”_ The more he thought so, the less he felt convinced, all he saw was a brown shirt folded on the back of a chair, the same colour and design of one shirt he knew all too well, but again, it was just a shirt. “ _It can’t be.”_ He repeated again and again and again in his mind trying his best to persuade himself and finally fall asleep. “ _Can’t. I killed him.”_ Minho felt a tear running down his cheek but sleep finally caught him before he could wipe it away letting it fall on the pillow.  
When he woke up in the morning, a dream of the Glade when everything was fine still lingering in the back of his mind and slowly fading, he blamed that on the guilty he felt from the moment he grabbed the spear.

Gally could see an empty space all around him, no colours, no walls, no floor or ceiling, everything was bright but he couldn’t see a lamp or a fire or the sun, it was just blindly white and silent. He moved slowly, small steps, a bit uncertain, like a baby learning to walk for the first time. Was he dead? Was _that_ what was waiting for him in the afterlife? An infinite white room? Maybe he didn’t deserve Heaven, it was fine, but he thought that perhaps he would have seen the others at least one last time. He walked around, back and forth, in circle, aimlessly. Nothing. Time was still, or so it seemed, and nothing around him ever changed.  
«Hello? – He called out after a while, he wasn’t sure of time anymore – Anybody there? Can you hear me?» No one ever answered, no one was ever in sight. He was dead, he knew that much, he had to be dead, no way he could survive a spear going through his chest. Unconsciously he looked down putting a hand where the spear hit him, there was nothing, not a scar, not a wound.  
After what it felt like an eternity, during which he paced, and run, sit still, never sleeping for he never felt tired, he heard a soft and far sound and moved in that direction. At least he had something to follow now.

In the end the people who saved them weren’t so good as they claimed to be, in fact, it was still WICKED, it was always them. As they run through the facility desperately looking for a way out, Minho thought back to the room he saw and whoever was inside, he was curious, he wanted, _needed_ , to know, he had to be sure, but they couldn’t stop running if they wanted to get away. And so he ran, like he did for the past three years every day. He ran faster and faster, focused his mind on this only task, keep running.  
When they stopped for the night in a makeshift shelter in the middle of nowhere, an old truck abandoned in the sand, his mind raced back to the room he left behind, the familiar shirt he thought he had seen and the boy who used to wear it. The boy he killed. He rolled on the sand curling up on himself with an arm under his head as a wave of guilt washed over him.  
«I’m sorry…» He muttered to himself before falling asleep.

The moment Gally opened his eyes wondering when he had closed them, he was no longer in a white infinite space, it was a proper room, still white but a room nevertheless, he was propped up, attached at some kind of machine, wires everywhere on the ground and on himself, he couldn’t move. He felt a dull pain on his left side but couldn’t understand why nor move his head to look at it.  
A man clapped his hands once looking at him with a satisfied grin, he was somehow familiar but Gally couldn’t place where he met him, he relaxed on his chair, hand clasped together on the desk and made a quick gesture to someone behind Gally.  
«Let’s begin then.»  
Gally wanted to ask what they were going to start, where was he or what happened.  
“ _How am I alive?”_ He thought. When he opened the mouth to voice at least one of his questions a man turned on the machine holding him up, a low electric shock travelled through his body and he let out a weak sound before falling limp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are always welcome, every mistake is mine, I checked but things always slip away so... I'm sorry.  
> My tumblr is https://aki-draws-things.tumblr.com if you want to read some flashfic or updates/spoilers from this, or just to talk.
> 
> Aki


	3. Chapter 3: All your nightmares are real

 

#  _**Chapter 3: All your nightmares are real** _

 

The wind was blowing slowly, shaking the trees upon him, Gally sit on the grass and looked down at his hands, his clothes were the same he wore in the Glade. He rose to his feet taking a look around.  
«Must be a dream.» He muttered unconvinced walking out of the woods. The Homestead was there, all the little huts they built in the years were there, the hammocks too, not far from where he was. And voices. Cheerful voices from one of the tables. He walked closer, careful not to step on branches and make a sound, something was wrong, what was in front of him, no matter how nice it would be, was impossible.  
Nick was there, an arm across Alby’s shoulders, he was laughing at something. Ben was sitting with them too, like Newt and Chuck. And Minho. The runner lifted his head and met his eyes, the smile suddenly growing bigger.  
«Gally! - He stood and walked up to him – Where have you been you shank? Been waiting for you forever.» Gally couldn’t remember a more bright smile on his face, everything of that screamed of trap but Minho seemed so real, the hand touching his arm _was_ real, he was sure. So, ignoring the warnings his mind tried to send him, he melted in his embrace holding him back and breathing deeply closing his eyes.  
  
_(He felt a strange painful sting when he took the breath but he ignored it.)_

He was still held in the familiar hug when the air around them shifted, curious and careful he opened his eyes, Minho had disappeared from his embrace like he’d never been there, a strong wind came from behind him and a loud _clang_ caught his attention.  
“ _The Maze.”_ Gally thought. “ _The Doors are closing.”_ It was then he realized he wasn’t in the Glade anymore, safe in Minho’s embrace. _No_. He _was_ inside the Maze, he turned on himself trying to find something that could lead him back to the Glade. He remembered the first rule Minho always had, _run_. So he started running trying to follow the sound of the doors closing, the more he ran the farthest the sound seemed and the more lost he felt. Until a griever appeared in front of him, hitting him in the chest before he had time to turn.  
Blind hot pain exploded on him, he felt all the air getting out at once as he crumbled on the ground, he felt himself getting picked up by a cold claw and slammed on the floor, against the wall, shaken in the air before the claw let him go and he once again crashed on the ground.

_  
Weakly he opened his eyes seeing a white wall in front of him and a low sound of a machine working. And a beep, an insistent, fast beeping sound right next to his ears. The wall blurred as the sound became, if possible, even faster, he felt like choking but his body, somehow upright, was like paralyzed, something was holding him up and still, belts around his legs and arms, around his chest. Gally tried to speak, ask for help but every sound was so loud that he wasn’t sure anymore it wasn’t just in his head. It felt like…_

  
Drowning. Gally, thirteen years old Gally at least, was being shoved unceremoniously inside a tube. He put his hands on the glass knocking over and over again against it, screaming at the top of his lungs. His mind was foggy, he couldn’t remember where he was, or why he was being put in there, he didn’t recognize any of the faces looking at him on the other side of the glass, impassible in front of his screams, in white lab cots. There was a boy around his age, brown, sad eyes looking at him without blinking, a boy with no name for him. That’s when it hit him. _He_ had no name. Or, more precisely, he couldn’t remember his name, not really.  
Some memories danced in front of his eyes, clouded faces, his mother long brown hair, tied up in a braid falling on her shoulder, sweet blue eyes and freckles all over her face. His father, hair blond reaching the shoulders, sometimes tied behind, he looked sad as he pushed him out of the door one night, eyes green clouded in pain and regret, and apology in a voice Gally couldn’t remember. A girl in the garden, hair long, free on her back, soft as silk, mouths moving in familiar, comforting words he couldn’t hear. A boy, dark eyes and a smile that never failed to blind him. All of them had no names. All of them faded from his memory as the water filled the tank.  
He pounded harder on the glass when he felt the cold water reaching his hips and not stopping, merely a few seconds passed and the water was at his neck, submerged him, filled his nostrils and mouth as he screamed uselessly. Everything faded into nothing. The faces in his memory disappeared, his name was gone. He looked straight at the boy, unwavering outside the tube, he looked at him in hate and fear.  
“ _Why?”_ He dared to think. _“Why you stay there to watch?”_ And again. _“Why you watch me die? What have I done wrong?”_ Then he stopped screaming, unconsciousness claimed him and his body floated in the blue water.

__  
«We’re making so many progress, you know?» Gally had heard the voice before, it was familiar, and yet he couldn’t place it.  
_«Let me go…» He whispered, fully knowing that the man wouldn’t listen to him. He cursed, tried so much to sound intimidating. A bit difficult when he was being strapped on a machine, with his voice weak and his head fuzzy. He was so tired. His head lolled forward, eyes unfocused as the tiles on the floor swam on his vision._  
_«Sir. - The voice was coming from next to him, low and calming, there was something cold pressed on his chest, and hands poking at his side sending waves of pain at each touch. - We can’t go on today. His body– » Gally thought he heard the man in front of him scoff at the words.  
_ _«One last test.» He ordered, ignoring the protests of the doctor._

   
Everything happened quickly, one moment he was lifting a hammer, the next moment the hammer hit the ground and he was sprinting to the edge of the Glade where Thomas had rolled on the grass grabbed by Ben. _Ben._ Gally jumped into action, grabbed the former builder pulling him away from the other boy a moment before Newt came down with the shovel. It was surreal for a second. Ben looked up at them, black blood dripping from his mouth, for a moment he looked almost lucid, blue eyes staring back at Gally as he spoke to him, as he told him to calm down, then, before Alby had time to say anything, Ben surged forward grabbing the first person he found and sinking his teeth on the neck.  
“ _No… No it’s wrong. It wasn’t like this. It never happened. This… This is not...”_ Minho staggered back, a look of terror in his eyes, a hand flew to his neck, blood seeping through his fingers. _“It wasn’t like this.”_ Gally thought in horror, but like all the time before everything seemed so real, he let go of Ben’s shoulder, now held down by other Gladers, he caught Minho as his legs gave out and he crumbled on the ground, he put a hand on the wound trying to stop the bleeding but it was too late, he knew, Minho knew it, they all did. As the Runner took his last breath Gally’s screams echoed through the Glade.

_  
Gally could hear himself screaming, could feel his hands wet with blood, Minho’s body going limp on him, his scared eyes looking at him as the last thing. (How ironically it was.) His body seized on the machine, the screams subsided leaving him exhausted. Someone freed him from the belts, in another time his mind would have probably thought of grabbing the occasion and run, instead he let himself being jostled around, being put on a cold table and poked around with needles. Someone pointed a light at him, he stared back at the blurred form upon him, unblinking, more hands were on him, frantic, more screams, words he couldn’t understand, they yelled about losing something. What could they lose in such an empty room? Then the world disappeared._

  
“ _Make it stop. I’ve done nothing wrong, no! You made me do this! It’s all your fault! STOP!”_  
_The voice echoed in his head, a woman’s voice, scared as he was, just more loud, Gally looked around at the room but he was alone, not even a window. The voice was loud and strangely close, screaming and begging._  
“ _Please… I never wanted that. I’m sorry. I’m sorry Rachel.” He lifted an eyebrow in confusion._  
“ _Rachel?” He thought, it was definitely a female name and the only female he knew was Teresa. “Who’s Rachel?”_  
_The voice wavered a moment, and the door opened again as a doctor came inside with two guards who lifted him from the bed and dragged him away.  
_ “ _Who are you?” The voice spoke again after a few minutes, uncertain. Gally didn’t have the time to answer nor to think of how strange it might sound, having a voice in the head asking questions, the machine he got strapped to sent a soft hum and a needle poked him on his left arm._

   
This time the memory from the Glade was real, small bits here and there, months after months during which hope disappeared. He remembered all too well.  
A year and not a single clue, Nick always optimistic way was getting increasingly annoying, he believed, _oh God he truly did_ , that they would find a way out. Gally wasn’t that much sure, he had, of course, faith in Minho, but a way out? No, that was too much even for him, not that he would ever say that aloud, Minho would be so upset that would probably start to act like most of the other Gladers acted around him, for some reason he couldn’t place they didn’t trust him.  
A year and a month, they were still there, in the middle of an endless maze, with monsters outside. The nights seemed longer when one couldn’t sleep, every morning he looked as the Runners left the Glade, he watched the doors opening from his hammock and turned slowly trying to catch the last moments of sleep before starting the day.  
A year and four months, the night were so long but the days seemed endless, getting up, picking up some breakfast, going to work, lunch, more work. When the night fell again on the Glade Gally would crawl in Minho's hammock for a while. Sometimes he left after an hour or so, other times they both fell asleep there. The closeness still never made the nights or days shorter, just a little more bearable. Except Gally wasn’t strong as he liked to make everyone else think he was.  
A year and a half. That was it. A year and six month was the time he managed to endure before breaking.  
It was such a normal day, like a thousand other before in the Glade, like a thousand other more. He glanced at the West door, the closest to his position, and mentally repeated the plan he made up a last time. It took him almost three months before finding the courage and for sure he wouldn’t back out now. He left a quick letter to Minho, carefully folded in his blanket on the hammock, when he would find it the doors would already be closed.  
Gally looked around once, twice, three times, checking that nobody was coming or looking in his direction, he set down the tools and walked, as casually as he could, closer to the door, cast a brief look back one last time and slipped inside.

_  
«Stop…» His voice was hoarse and weak, his eyes only half lidded as he tried to focus on the man in front of him. «Let me go…» He almost begged. Then, as if he woke up from a dream, his vision cleared, he stared at the man with all the hatred he felt. «I’m gonna kill you, you damn shuckface! I will kill you!» He yelled, ignoring the stabbing pain at his side, he went on for a minute or so, cursing him and everyone he could think of, if it wasn’t for the machine holding him up he would have fallen already, screams getting weaker every passing second. Then everything faded back into darkness._

  
From the inside the walls seemed so much taller, he was walking slowly, fear suddenly taking hold of his heart, but he wouldn’t go back, he couldn’t. He took a few corners and when he turned back he realized he didn’t know where he was anymore. It was then that he heard it. A screeching sound, metal scratching against rock. Gally turned on himself seeing nothing, and yet the sound was close, so close, _too close_.  
He didn’t have time to see it, he didn’t have time to scream or even gasp, pain suddenly spread through his body, it was just a moment and the scratching sound disappeared replaced by footsteps.  
“ _Minho.”_ Gally thought, shame washing over him, he should have gone farther inside, he should hide somewhere so the Runner wouldn’t see him.  
Instead he looked down at his hands both pressed on his side, black blood seeping through his fingers fast. The footsteps slowed until they stopped, he heard a soft gasp, someone - “ _Minho...”_ his mind supplied again – calling his name in a worried voice. Gally looked up, his vision already blurring while the walls seemed to bend over him, fear took control of every cell of his body, he wanted to cry but every strength was leaving him, unconsciously he held out a hand to Minho, lips parted trying to call his name, ask for help no matter how angry he would be later. And then he was falling and darkness enveloped him like a blanket cutting out everything else.  
He saw himself from behind, like he was watching a film – not that he remembered ever watching films – Minho was supporting his body, holding him has he seized painfully, blood dripping from his mouth. It went on for two long minutes, Minho was constantly checking his watch. As soon as his body went still the runner sprinted back to the Glade carrying him.  
Gally followed him out, no matter what it was he had no intentions of staying in the Maze any longer. He saw Minho staring as the Med-jacks carried his body away, he saw him looking down at his hands, at the shirt stained with blood, running the hands in his hair gripping them angrily. And he heard him, for the first time he heard him.  
«Harder. I need to work harder. - Gally’s heart ached at the words – I need to find a way out.»

 __  
First arrived the smell, a sharp smell of chemicals, the room was almost blinding – or was it the light in the middle of the ceiling? - Gally had to close his eyes and open them a few times before being able to take a look at the surroundings. It wasn’t the usual room he would wake up into, maybe they had only moved him.  
“ _Hey. Stranger.” The voice spoke softly in his head, Gally nearly jumped off the bed looking around frantically, eyes scanning every corner. The voice chuckled. “Take it easy before you snap your neck. I’m in your head.” He probably made a displeased sound at the words because the girl – it was definitely a female voice – groaned. “It sounded better in my own head. Anyway – She clicked her tongue, how he knew he wasn’t sure – for some reason we can speak like this. You can hear me, and I can hear you. Well, if you speak I can.”_  
_«Who the hell are you?» Gally said aloud, confused. For some minutes everything was silent._  
“ _You still there, stranger? You have to speak in your mind. Think of it.” Gally took a deep breath – the pain at his side was still there and yet he couldn’t bring himself to look at what was hurting him – he closed his eyes letting the head fall back on the pillow._  
“ _Like this?” He thought uncertain receiving a little yell of cheering from the girl. “Who are you?” He asked again. He was almost sure he was going crazy, hearing voices was never a good sign, but he couldn’t help but trust that girl._  
“ _Name’s Beth, stranger.” She said after a little, there was something familiar in the tone.  
_ “ _Gally.” He introduced himself, mostly so she would stop to call him stranger, the girl – Beth – laughed softly at his clarification._

  
The gun in his hand was familiar, it felt like he held it a thousand more times before that moment. It felt like an extension of his own hand, like it was supposed to be there. He tried – He tried so hard that for a moment he thought his head was going to split from the pain – to move his finger away from the trigger, he looked at Thomas, for once without hate, he begged for him to understand his struggles, he apologized silently, tears streaming down his face as he pulled the trigger. Everything went on as he remembered, as he dreamed every night, Chuck jumping in front of the bullet, the spear flying through the room and hitting him, the men taking them away. One time, two, three, five, ten, twenty, endless times.

__  
There was one thing worse than always remember that moment, and it was seeing it over and over until he was too broken to even start to beg for them to stop, until all insults died on his lips and his eyes fluttered closed, too tired to keep fighting.  
_The man went on for a full day, or so Gally thought, there was no way for him to calculate hours and time. He started to insult the man in front of him, the one always calm and sickeningly smiling, at first in a loud and apparently strong voice, colourful curses mixing common insults and made-up ones from the Glade, every time the memory faded he screamed at him, he writhed on the machine trying to free himself, and screamed even louder until his throat was hurting and he was left panting._

  
“ _They must really like you.” Beth said one time, her voice soothing after the hours spent in the simulation – she was the one describing what they did like this, simulations – Gally groaned tiredly turning on the small bed and pressing the face in the mattress, a few seconds after he turned again on his back and then curled up, a hand over the wound tightly bandaged._  
“ _They hate me.” He murmured in response, his voice weak even through their bond. “Everyone does.” He added. Obviously he couldn’t see how her expression changed at those words, how she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, how she stood and punch the wall, hard, he couldn’t hear her screaming, too far from each other to do that._  
“ _I don’t.” She said, her voice calm and kind in the midst of all the rage._  
“ _You don’t even know me.”  
__«Oh, little one… But I do.» She said to the silence of her cell._

_  
«Just you wait.» Gally spit out, face contorted in anger, eyes wild looking at the smiling man, always smiling, «I’m gonna free myself and I’m gonna fucking kill you.»_

  
Minho looked at the bonfire distracted, he wasn’t really there that night and Gally could feel it, they grew apart after the Changing, Minho had tried to help him, he tried to understand but he kept pushing him away, farther and farther until Minho stop joining him. Until he stopped caring for him. Gally wanted to feel better, being finally left alone to deal with whatever memories or things haunted him night after night. In reality he missed Minho so much that he wanted to go to him and wrap himself around him for the rest of the night, that’s how he knew the runner wasn’t his usual self.  
Gally had no intention to eavesdrop, he walked close only because he wanted to speak with Minho a little, he stopped when he heard the hushed words Nick was saying.  
«We can’t tell the others – He murmured and Alby by his side nodded – They need hope. They need to believe there’s a way.» Minho made a face, he almost looked like he was going to laugh openly in his face.  
«Hope – His voice was quiet but Gally could hear sarcasm washing over it – What hope, Nick? There is no way out. I know every corner of that shucking Maze, if there was a way I would have found it already.»  
Gally turned and walked back to the group of builders close to the ring.  
“ _We’re lucky, Minho._ \- He thought – _If you saw how the world out there is you would agree with me.”_ But he never told him, he tried once, right after the Changing, but Minho never understood.

__  
Gally screamed. It wasn’t, for once, out of pain, more of anger, and a bit of fear. He looked wildly at the man and shouted insults even louder, spitting at him, trying to bite the doctors who dared to come too close to him. They kept him in the room, attached to the machine for days in a row, an iv attached to his arm. His screams became weakly as he drifted in and out of consciousness but sometimes he still had some lucid moments, and he definitely couldn’t waste them.  
_In the end the man sighed, finally changing his expression for once. He looked directly at the boy smirking in front of him after a new row of threats. He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed the eyes for a second, when he opened them again something glimmered in them. Gally opened his mouth to say something but the man spoke first interrupting the new curse, looking straight at him but talking to a couple of doctors – Not the usual ones, Gally thought – almost behind him._

_«Just… Make him shut the hell up.»_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are always welcome, The story is, as always, un-beta'd so every mistake is mine, I checked but things always slip away so... I'm sorry.  
> My tumblr is https://aki-draws-things.tumblr.com if you want to read some flashfic or updates/spoilers from this, or just to talk.
> 
> Aki


	4. Chapter 4: Silence is golden

 

#  _**Chapter 4: Silence is golden** _

 

When Gally woke up something was off, he couldn’t pinpoint what exactly, he simply knew something was wrong. He didn’t remember being taken back to the cell or falling asleep; he didn’t remember talking to Beth when he came back, and they always talked.

“Hey. _Hey Gally, are you still here?”_ Her voice was like a balm in his mind, he closed his eyes briefly and nodded.

“ _Yeah… Where should I be?”_ Gally asked still trying to understand what was wrong. Beth let out a relieved laugh.

“ _You’ve been quiet for days, maybe even a week. At a point I couldn’t feel this connection anymore. I thought you were dead.”_

“ _Days?”_ The boy sit up quickly and looked at his surroundings, it wasn’t the usual room he was being kept in, the walls were too white, the bed too neat, there was a small window in a corner, almost on the ceiling, an equally white door, with no windows nor a handle.

“ _Where am I?”_ He wondered trying to stand, at the movement something pulled at his arm, Gally looked down staring at the tube of the IV, he spent a few seconds thinking before deciding that he didn’t need it and pulled it out.

“ _I’m not sure. They moved us a lot. Not just the two of us, of course. I heard of others but I don’t know how many.”_ Beth sounded so calm, like she was used to that, or like she was a trap. Did she worked for them? For WICKED? “ _No Gally. I don’t. But I’ve been here for longer, and usually I don’t fall unconscious so easily like you do.”_ There was something in her tone, like a repressed laugh.

“ _I got hurt.”_ Gally briefly said, he put a hand on his chest, under the fabric of the shirt – white too, like the pants, like everything – he could still feel the tight bandages. It was healing, most likely, but he was sure it would also leave a big and ugly scar.

“ _What happened?”_ For a moment he didn’t catch the words Beth spoke, his mind still focused on the wound, he shrugged walking slowly in the cell, barefoot.

“ _I killed a kid._ \- His voice cracked slightly at that – _and Min… a friend threw a spear in my chest. Not that I don’t deserve it, you know? Just…_ \- He took a deep breath, blocked only after half by a painful sting, he put a hand on the chest staggering back of two steps and falling sit on the bed – _I believe he was controll--”_ He stopped mid-thought, Beth’s voice was echoing in his head from afar, he could only guess what she was saying. Dark spots danced in his vision, the pain was getting more constant and he let himself fall back on the mattress, eyes fluttering closed as the door opened.

 

Running from zombie-like people wasn’t something Minho was willing to repeat anytime soon, they all thought they would be safer outside that building, not a single one of them thought about the video they all saw right after escaping the maze, like they all had forgot about it, about the Flare and the seemingly never-ending deserts. They weren’t safe, they would never be. A memory came back to him, it sounded so far from then, like it belonged to a lifetime ago, a scared voice, words spit out between tears and clenched teeth.

«We belong to the Maze.»

How ironic now. Minho sighed as he slowly walked thought the desert, the mountains they wanted to reach looked increasingly far every step they took.

“ _Maybe he was right._ \- He thought – _Maybe he even tried to tell me about this after the changing.”_

«Well… we’re not that much far now…» Thomas said hesitating as the whole group lined up next to each other and looked at the still far mountains.

«You’re the worst bloody liar, Tommy.» Newt groaned before starting to walk again, somehow setting back the mood into something familiar pushing the memories back until night fell on them.

As the sun set on the horizon Minho thought about how he used to know that in deserts temperature usually dropped during night time, he didn’t remember studying it but he remembered the knowledge. Somehow that didn’t apply for them. Maybe it was the sun still burning, maybe that wasn’t a real desert but a submerged old city. Anyway the nights were just as hot as the days.

It was only when Thomas woke them all up in the middle of the night that they noticed the lightning striking down from the sky like dead trees. They picked up their things and ran.

 

“ _It’s becoming a habit. An annoying one, Gally.”_ Was the first thing he heard when he came back. He wanted to ask her how long he had been unconscious this time, instead he only let out a groan.

“ _It’s not like I can control it.”_ Gally complained sitting up slower than the previous time, the IV seemed to be gone, though the pole was still in a corner of the room.

“ _You could, you know? Like with no pacing around the room or things of sort.”_ He stopped, his feet already on the ground, his head snapped at the ceiling, scanning for a security camera. There was a red blinking light ion a corner, Gally stared at it, rage taking control of his person.

“ _If you think I’ll cooperate just because you act nice you’re wrong.”_

“ _What? No. I’m not--”_

“ _Stop. You know what I do. Everything. You know I’m pacing. You...”_ Gally came back to the bed sitting heavily on it and taking the head in his hands.

“ _It was a lucky guess.”_ Beth said calmly despite now being the one pacing through her own small cell. “ _You’ve always been nervous when locked up alone. That’s why I guessed you were pacing.”_ She explained before realizing what she said and bit her lip hoping he wasn’t listening. No such luck, of course.

“ _Always?”_ Gally asked looking up again at the camera. “ _That’s not really playing in your favour, you know?”_ He smiled at the thought, he sounded a bit more like his usual self and less like a complete stranger in his own mind.

A clacking sound caught his attention, seemed like someone was opening one after the other all the doors – or maybe they were just banging on said doors to illude them – Gally rose to his feet again and crossed the distance between the bed and the door in four steps.

«Hey!» He called banging on the door with a fist. «Hey! Do you hear – » He froze. His fist was raised and ready to hit the door again when he realized something was wrong. Horrifying wrong. His eyes widened in shock, he took a step back from the door and look down at his hands, mouth still open as if he was speaking.

“ _No…”_ He thought staggering back until his back hit the wall, he took a hand to his mouth like it was suddenly something absolutely foreign to him.

“ _What? What’s going on? Gally are you okay?”_ Beth’s voice ringed through his head and faded away, words not making any sense. He knew something was wrong the moment he woke up in the new cell but couldn’t place it.

Until then.

Gally swallowed slowly. He could feel now his tongue being different, somehow shorter or something similar, he ended up almost chocking on his own saliva. From the mouth his hands run down to his neck feeling a rough bandage, like it had been put there fast and with little care. His first thought was to tear it apart and expose the neck but after that? He had no way to see what they could have done.

“ _Please tell me you're still there.”_ The girl’s voice was pleading, fear dripping through their connection. Gally took a shuddering breath.

“ _They did something.”_ He thought, his hand still grasping the bandage on the neck. “ _Something’s wrong with my voice.”_

“ _What do you mean? Like… it hurts to speak?”_ She inquired, Gally shook his head before realizing she couldn’t see him, or so she said.

_“No. More like I can’t talk.”_

“ _Because it hurts.”_ The boy groaned, it came out a low growl that was only barely human. It was wrong. So damn wrong.

“ _I_ _can’t_ _talk, Beth._ \- He tried to emphasize what he was saying – _At all. They took it. They took my voice.”_ Suddenly saying that out loud, despite only in his head, made it real. Gally slumped on the floor with a silent sob taking the head in his hands, tears falling on the floor. It couldn’t be real. What was he supposed to do? How could he ask for help?

Panic took control over him, Gally curled on himself on the ground shutting out every sound around him and Beth’s voice altogether. He didn’t know how long he stayed on the floor, if he fell asleep or unconscious, he only knew, when the guards came and grabbed him by the arms lifting him to his feet and dragging him, that it wasn’t a dream.

He opened his mouth when they shoved against the machine in the middle of the room but nothing came out but a low sound, a doctor strapped him to the machine easily ignoring his movements to free himself. Another one that Gally briefly saw before stepped in front of him and took away the bandage on the neck examining him closely, careful not to hurt him. He looked in his twenties and strangely kind to work for WICKED – but that was probably his job, looking kind to have his trust – Gally was sure he saw him before when they first took him in that room.

«It’s healing just fine – He said in a soft voice – but we need to keep it covered to avoid infections, I promise I’ll stop poking around it soon.» He even smiled, a small lopsided smile that truly confused Gally. «Just stay still a little more. - Gally must have scoffed because the man chuckled as he took a fresh gauze and applied it on the neck – You’re right, you’re right. Sorry.»

«No need for all this kindness. Do your job. You’re not paid to talk.» And the smile was suddenly gone, he quickly replaced the bandage and stepped back. «Now, where were we? - Janson asked, rhetorically – I don’t expect you boy to remember much of our latest sessions, unconscious subjects don’t give the same results as awake ones. Now, shall we begin?» Gally knew that no matter what he would say, or think, the machine would have been activated once again so he braced himself for whatever thing they would throw at him that time.

 

His head was spinning, spinning so fast he thought for a moment he would fall back, he almost felt sick. But no matter how fast the world was turning his legs kept him upright.

_“Not again…”_ He thought as he took in focus his surroundings and recognized the lab right out of the Maze, as he took consciousness of the cold gun in his hand, or of Chuck’s body falling limp in Thomas' arms. Usually by then, he remembered, he was already on his knees with a wooden spear stuck in his chest and blood pooling on his shirt and filling his lung. Not this time. The gun fell on the ground, the sound seemed to awake Thomas all of sudden. Gally couldn’t move, he wasn’t sure if it was out of fear, if they controlled him or because deep down, really deep in that moment, he knew it wasn’t real. He couldn’t move anyway. Thomas looked up from Chuck’s body, a rage in his eyes that Gally had never seen before in anyone, not even himself, he threw himself on the boy, his fist hitting Gally’s nose with a sickening crack, he could feel blood flowing down his face and a moment later his back hit the ground. Thomas closed a hand around his neck, not enough to choke him but only to keep him still as his other fist came down again and again on his face until everything faded and he wasn’t sure anymore of where he was and what was real. Except for the pain.

 

There was a sting on his arm, Gally couldn’t tell anymore what he was imagining from everything else, it wasn’t too painful but he could feel his blood being taken. His eyes fluttered open and he tried to turn the head to his side to no avail, something was keeping him still.

 

The room was always the same, corpse of scientists, red splotch of blood on the floor, the dim blue light from the computers and the gun in his hand. What WICKED wanted was in that memory probably, or they wouldn’t let him revive it over and over again. Was it the guilt he felt? The fear and the pain, both physical and psychological? Or they didn’t even knew what they were looking for but it was there and he was doomed to revive it forever until they found their answer, and later, when they will have it, to have that exact thing they needed.

He felt sick, he doubled over a table holding his stomach, cold sweat slid down his forehead, he was shivering like he had the worst fever he ever had. Then his body suddenly stood upright, he moved, one foot after the other, his eyes dazed, barely seeing where he was going. It didn’t matter anymore, he had no control, and anyway he knew already.

It was always the same.

Minho looked at him, a plead in his eyes as his hand slipped to grab the spear, Gally saw him, every movement he took, how his arm seemed stiff, like he couldn’t do anything else but that. That’s when he understood. Minho couldn’t control himself either, WICKED had him, like they had Gally, like Chuck too.

The gun was always trained on Thomas, doomed to kill Chuck, but this time he couldn’t look away from Minho. Gally smiled, his finger pulled the trigger against his will, he saw the spear leaving ground, flying away from Minho’s hand, toward him, he saw tears, for the first time he saw Minho crying as he killed him.

_(He wanted to tell him he didn’t die, comfort him. But it wasn’t real. Minho wasn’t there. He was safe now. Finally.)_

The pain was real though. He staggered back, like dozens of times before, the gun hit the floor and he took his hands to the chest. Blood dripped from a corner of his mouth as he looked up at Minho in fear and fell on the floor.

Something changed this time. Minho run to him, fell on his knees next to his body and held him up, tears falling down his cheeks and on Gally’s face. He was talking but whatever he was saying was covered by a loud ringing in his ears.

 

Gally’s face was wet when the room came back in his vision, not the lab outside the Maze but whatever room they kept taking him day after day. The pain in his chest was real, like Minho had just stabbed him, he couldn’t stop the tears.

«This – The man said stopping in front of him and holding his face up so he could look at Gally – This is our biggest success. I should have guessed memories of that boy would give us that reaction. Now…» He patted Gally's cheek with a hand, smiling. «You did good. So let’s make a deal, shall we? - Gally’s mind was screaming not to trust his words, and he wasn’t, everything coming out of his mouth would be a trap. - If you ask nicely, we’ll let you go.» There it was. _The trap_.

 

In the end they were always running. No matter what, no matter where they were. Running was always all they could do. Minho had always been the faster, both in the Maze and in the Scorch, and yet he was in the back, the last one. Truth be told, he was tired of running, he wanted to stop, lay down and close his eyes and when he would wake up again everything would be fine, maybe they would find themselves back in the Glade, safe and sound, all of them together.

He turned sensing the lightning striking closer to his position, from this close they looked even more like trees. Someone was screaming, he didn’t understand who or what they said, he could imagine it was some urge for him to run faster and he tried. He tried so hard.

Pain was strange. It started from his head and came down all the way to his toes, like a shock, like someone put a wire inside his body and turned on the electricity, it felt strange but Minho was really too tired to think about it in that moment, he just wanted to sleep a little more.

The Glade was the first thing he saw, a dream like many others he had in the time since they left, but it was also different. Alby was shaking his head, he almost looked disappointed at something, Chuck was next to him, his eyes so sad that Minho couldn’t understand why. Why would he be sad? They were safe, they were home. Ben stared at him, he seemed so near to tears, like the day he arrived in the Glade, terrified of his own shadow. It took Minho a few more seconds to understand and when he did, he looked around. There were other Gladers, all spread around the place, the walls were gone and the Glade was huge, maybe even endless. But in all that immense space, free and safe, he couldn’t find him, no matter where he looked. Gally was nowhere to be seen.

Minho took a step back swallowing hard, he wanted to ask them where he was but he couldn’t talk. So he did the only thing he knew how to do. He turned his back to the fellow, dead, Gladers and run. He had to find him, had to explain, apologize, make things finally right again.

_He had to find Gally._

He saw Thomas first, then Newt, and Frypan and then Teresa and Aris. His head was pulsing painfully as they breathed a sigh of relief and helped him slowly back on his feet. He felt even more tired than before, but this time only physically. His mind wrapped around what he saw, what he dreamed of, he could still see the endless Glade and all the friends they had lost. And he could see even clearer the one who wasn’t there waiting.

He had to find him. “ _And I will.”_ He resolved as they walked slow and close to each other around the dark building the found as cover.

 

«Please – He thought he could hear his voice – Please let me go.» Gally begged, hoping for a long moment that everything else had been a dream. «You had what you wanted. I won’t tell anyone. I won’t talk.» The man smiled inclining his head to the side, Gally wanted to wipe that smile away from his face.

«So?» He asked like he hadn’t heard a word. And he didn’t, Gally knew despite trying to convince himself of the contrary. He writhed on the machine, hands closed in fists and clenched teeth, his face red in anger. The man never stopped smiling and, _oh,_ Gally hated it so much. «Nothing to say?» The boy let out a low inhuman growl. He clapped the hands together and motioned to the scientists and doctors behind him to resume the simulation.

«What you’re doing will save thousands of lives. - Gally wanted to shut his ears and stop listening – I knew you would have made the right decision.»

A jolt of electricity went through his body and Gally opened the mouth to scream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are always welcome, The story is, as always, un-beta'd so every mistake is mine, I checked but things always slip away so... I'm sorry.  
> Also, sorry for the wait... I'm so damn slow.  
> My tumblr is https://aki-draws-things.tumblr.com if you want to read some flashfic or updates/spoilers from this, or just to talk.
> 
> Aki


	5. Chapter 5: Looking back to the life you once knew

 

#  _**Chapter 5: Looking back to the life you once knew** _

 

Memories were curious. For three years all he could remember was his name, and it wasn’t even his real name. _No._ A name WICKED gave him, picked out between dozen other names, a piece of paper in a bowl. Naming them must have looked like a game, there was never a reason after their names, no hidden meaning, they borrowed all those historical and known names and stitched on them. He saw kids being punished whenever they used their old names, _the real ones;_ in all fairness Gally had not such a problem. His real name was gone, where, he didn’t know. He simply couldn’t remember it.

It started with a G, probably. Or was it the one they choose for him? Maybe both. Maybe it was an L. Nevertheless G sounded pretty good, so he went with it. For some reason it also sounded right.

 

It started one day during a simulation, something he lived thousands of times before. _The Maze_. Somehow it was always the Maze and he was always running, sometimes even dying.

He was running when everything dissolved around him, it wasn’t unusual, a change in between, but this time was different.

He suddenly was in a garden, somewhere he never saw and yet felt familiar, there was a big oak tree close to a nice little house with a fresh-painted fence. A man was tying a rope to the branches, a first rope was already dangling close, then he tied a wooden seat and turned to the little boy waiting on the porch.

«G, come here boy.» The little boy ran to him watching amazed the swing his father made for him, he turned to him with a bright smile and immediately went to sit.

«Push me dad?» He asked and Gally noticed his missing front tooth and the light freckles on his face.

The man looked familiar, the father of that nameless child, familiar dirty blond hair and green eyes, a voice kind and soothing and large hands that gripped the swing and pushed him up in the air.

Gally didn’t notice the tears forming in his eyes until they fell. Everything was achingly familiar. The man, the swing on the oak tree, the fence and the house. The bush of begonias on the other side and a small inflatable pool, he couldn’t see them from where he was but Gally knew they were there.

His attention returned on the man, something in him remembered playfully pulling those hairs trying to tie them in a ponytail, the laughter and the hushed bedtime stories. And a name.

It floated before his eyes and brought more tears. Gally covered his mouth trying not to make sounds.

“ _Vince. His name is… was Vince. My… My father.”_ He thought before the swing and the garden and the house dissolved in favour of an all too familiar room.

 

Things floated back to his mind leaving behind only pain, _physical pain_ , sadness, guilt, regret, and a bunch of other emotions he couldn’t pinpoint in that precise moment. Everything was just so overwhelming.

The simulations never stopped, if possible they became even more violent and tiring, there was a needle always inside his arm, extracting blood almost constantly, and there was a man, one doctor, sneaking inside the cell late at night, with weak excuses that Gally thought, _feared_ , he would get caught soon. It never happened for some reason, either he was smarter than he sounded or WICKED was blinder, for both their sake he hoped for the former.

 

The only light in the room came from an old lamp whose light was slowing dying out and some glow-in-the-dark stars his parents stuck to the wall and ceiling when he was two or three. Now that he was grown he stopped creating stories for himself before sleeping, stories where he was out there, in the dark sky, following the stars to new worlds. Because now he wasn’t by himself anymore.

He let his little brother crawl in his bed dragging a blanket and a teddy bear, sneak under his own blanket and press himself against his side and look up at him, with big eyes full of expectations. And he would start to tell a new story. Most of the times it was a story about two brothers flying away in a spaceship just to see the stars. Stories about stars and galaxies far, far from home, with made up names and skies of different colours. The brothers never came back to Earth once the stories were over, they kept travelling.

«One day I’ll take you to the stars. I promise.»

 

Tears were falling on his face when Gally woke up in the cell alone, long told stories still lingering in the back of his mind, his head pounding painfully as the memory became clearer and his heart ached bringing a sob to his throat.

“ _Nightmare?”_ Beth enquired softly, to not add more pain to his head, she knew all too well the feeling and the pain from getting the memories back. Gally sniffled turning on the mattress and curling up.

“ _I had a brother. A little brother._ \- He said as his smiling face came into focus in his mind, for a moment he wished he could make her see him. The big brown eyes he took from their grandmother, the short curls on his head. - _WICKED named him Chuck.”_

 

The world was in chaos, not that it wasn’t before, what he meant was _more_ chaos. Chaos as in _burning_. Chaos as in a bright star that once humanity called _Sun_ dying and scorching everything on its path. Chaos as in incinerated people. _Chaos as in Cranks_. Or at least that’s how government called the mutated people roaming the deserted lands that once were cities. He was too young to understand what people on television were saying, too young to understand the grim looks on his parents face. Too young to understand why his mother was loosing her beautiful hair and why she would wake up in pain and with new wounds on her body. Why she stopped singing. Too young to understand why his father locked the door of his room, with their mother still inside, and took care of them personally.

Gally did his part, he picked it up quickly; he took care of his little brother, walked to school hand in hand and went to pick him up every day, he started to wake up early in the morning and helped Vince make the little boxes with their lunch. Everything so that his little brother could keep smiling like everything was still fine.

He was too young to fully understand, but wasn’t stupid, something was undoubtedly going on. Something wrong.

 

_The simulation focused on Chuck for the first time in what seemed to be an eternity. On his little chubby face, on the hope gleaming in his eyes when Gally walked in the room, scared, stung, crying, but there, with them. Chuck didn’t know why he felt so happy just by seeing him, it was one of those strange feelings he sometimes had, like when he was thinking of his family, he just wanted Gally to escape with them. The simulation focused on his eyes, brown and opened wide as Gally pulled the trigger. As it happened before with Minho, all Gally could look at was Chuck. His little brother. The boy he killed._

_The world tilted and pain erupted once again, it was somehow familiar after all those times; he kept looking at Chuck as he died, an apology stuck in his throat._

 

Helen always took him to the theatre with her, he would sit quiet and patient on the couch in the backstage watching how she transformed into someone entirely different in two minutes, how she brushed her hair and put them in some different hairstyle, how if he wasn’t there he would’ve never recognized her. And then he would stay in front of the stage watching as she moved ever so gracefully, her voice singing powerfully, songs about love, and fear, and lost, and hope. That fascinated him, everything, the lights and the dresses and the multitude of voices in some points.

Gally loved following his mother around since he was a little boy, scrambling on his short legs behind her, he dreamed to be in her place one day, walk on that very same stage and all the lights would be on him and he would sing of stars far away. Because that was it, the stars and the sky were part of him, they called him.

_(«Your name is Galileo now.» Said the woman and despite it not being his real name it was quite fitting, they both dreamed of the stars, maybe it was fate. Or maybe it was just chance.)_

Then everything changed. Helen fell ill one spring day and everything that had been a constant in his life turned upside-down. He was eight when he sat on the bed and tried to sing for her like she did every time he was sick, his voice was everything but harmonious and right like her used to be but Helen smiled every time. Sometimes she corrected him, taught him little tricks to hit the right notes better, other times she simply stared at the slowly moving fan on the ceiling. There was a third time but Gally never thought of it, he tried his best to convince himself it was just a nightmare. During those moments the door was always locked and Gally would scream a few songs, completely and voluntarily off-key, so his brother wouldn’t hear the screams coming from the room.

 

“ _There’s something we need to talk.”_ Beth sounded almost worried, something in the back of Gally’s mind told him that nothing good ever came out when someone started with those words. _“_ _Just listen and don’t interrupt me for now.”_ He hummed sitting with his back against the wall and the eyes trained on the door waiting for the moment it would open again. He was starting to spend less and less time in the room and he was also becoming weaker every day that went on.

“ _There’s a doctor in here that doesn’t work for WICKED, an undercover agent of some sort, I think you’ve already met him, red hair, nice face –_ She paused a few seconds and Gally could picture her grinning, it was always a weird feeling since he had no idea of what she looked like – _cute ass.”_

“ _Oh good Lord...”_ Gally thought shaking his head, he wasn’t sure of when he stopped doubting her, it was, once again, a feeling, something telling him she could be trusted, that they knew each other or used to.

“ _Didn’t take you for the religious type.”_

“ _I… I’m not sure. I think father took me to the church on Sunday, not that I remember much more.”_ He said and Beth nodded silently in agreement.

“ _It’ll come back, little one.”_ Gally raised an eyebrow and the nickname but didn’t had time to elaborate a question that the door opened and a guard with a crooked smile waved a pair of handcuffs in front of him.

“ _Oh shuck.”_

 

Vince pushed a bag in his hands after fixing a blue, heavy backpack on his shoulders.

«I would come with you to aunt Connie boys but I have so much work here.» His father said with a smile as he ushered them to the door, he gave a quick kiss on his little brother head and ruffled his curls, then looked at him. «Take care of your brother, okay?» Like that was even a question, Gally nodded solemnly and, a moment later the door closed in front of them.

He knew their father had no work to do, he knew there was no “Aunt Connie” to go to. Gally took his brother hand and slowly walked down the road looking like he knew exactly what he was doing.

A shot rang through the hair and he had to grab all his courage not to yelp and cover in fear, he was the older, he promised he would take care of him, he couldn’t afford to be scared.

They stopped in a shack out of town, the first place that seemed safe enough for them to rest for the night, not that Gally really slept much. When his brother finally fell asleep he rolled his left sleeve and took a peek at the bandaged bite wound he had on the arm, the reason their father so quickly put together the bag and put them out of the house, the reason they heard the shooting.

The wound hurt, it felt like his arm was on fire and ready to drop off, or maybe he would be the one cutting it off so it would stop hurting so much. But he never blamed Helen for that, she was sick, she couldn’t control herself after all, Gally saw that happened before, it happened more and more often lately, at school the last time he went, at Church once, the theatre had been a massacre. Maybe he could find a place where people were still people and they could be safe. Where at least his brother would be safe.

In the morning they left the house and started to walk again. It took WICKED four days to find them, he was carrying the bag on the front, with only a blanket and a few clothes, no more food and an almost empty bottle of water he cautiously avoided to drink, and his brother on his back, the arm was still on fire, if possible even more than before, but he didn’t stop until they found them and when they finally did, he thought they would be safe at last. How wrong he was, but what an eight years old boy could know?

 

“ _He can get you out of here.”_ Gally spent something like three minutes before registering that Beth talked to him, his mind was hazy, the headache unbearable, it almost felt like someone put their hands inside his head and rearranged everything.

“ _Who…?”_ He managed to ask her, Gally opened the eyes for a moment but chose to keep them close, away from the blinding lights of the room.

“ _What do you mean who? The fake WICKED doctor! What’s wrong Gally?”_ Gally groaned – well, that was all he could do, groan, it was the only sound who came out of his mouth since they silenced him – not only his mind was foggy but his limbs felt so heavy, there was a mask on his face and he couldn’t move to take it away.

“ _Drugged… I think. I keep dreaming of… of things, Beth. Things I knew.”_ She chuckled lightly, for a moment he thought he could feel her hands brushing his hair.

“ _It’s okay little. Don’t fight them._ \- He raised an eyebrow but even that seemed so heavy – _Memories are quite tricky, I’ve learned it on my own. Just let them flow and you’ll be fine.”_ Gally wanted to ask her why she kept calling him little, he was sure he wasn’t much younger than she was, and yet it felt nice, in the back of his mind he didn’t want her to stop, not really.

 

Normally WICKED separated the kids in the rooms by the age, not this time though, not after the older one broke in the other room after running from the guards and biting one of them. Keeping subjects A9 and A11 separated was impossible. Chuck cling to his older brother and didn’t stop screaming until they allowed them to stay together, after that things ran mostly fine. There were already other boys and girls when they first arrived, kids like them, all around the same age, all with names that weren’t the original ones anymore. But they were safe there, Gally made sure he repeated that thousands of times so that his brother would end up believing him. And he did.

That’s when they met Minho and the rest of the group, that’s when Gally saw him for the first time and suddenly he couldn’t take his mind away from those dark eyes, so kind and smiling.

«You look like dad when he looked at mom.» Chuck said one day, curled up against him with the blanket up to his chubby face, Gally couldn’t help but smile at his words. «Or at pudding.»

«Chuckie!» He exclaimed trying to sound outraged. «Dad didn’t look lovingly at a pudding.»

«Sometimes he did, you know? When he looked at it and was drooling all over it.» Gally laughed, throwing his head back on the pillow and holding him closer on the small bed.

«That was you Chuckie. Not dad.»

«Still – and now he sounded more like the child he still was – you look like you’ve seen a really nice pudding.»

And maybe he did. Not that Minho was a pudding, or that he would _ever_ call him so, but he indeed saw the most beautiful person in the world.

When they kissed for the first time it was slow, curious and sweet. Gally was already slightly taller than Minho, who, on the other hand, was one year older and the one who initiated the kiss, they hid in a little storage room, filled with cables on the ground and walls connected to all the computers on the main room. It was strange, almost romantic, like in those old films he used to see with his mother, just not as romantic as the films, no sunset or beach or anything of that sort, just a badly lit storage room and their body pressed together like they were always meant to be.

 

“ _Feeling better?”_ It almost felt like she was right there next to him, her hand still playing soothingly in his hair, the lights not so hurting like before but the mask still on his face.

“ _I… I think so. Why am I remembering?”_ He sounded childish maybe, but she didn’t seem to mind it.

“ _They believe we’re not a threat anymore, –_ she said like she was telling him a secret – _I’m almost always restrained on the bed, you’re still recovering from that shit they did to you. We’re not a threat in their little dumb eyes.”_ For a moment Gally thought he could see her grinning crazily. “ _We’ll show ‘em little one. Oh we will. They don’t know what we can do.”_ She was definitely grinning and strangely enough it felt like the most comforting thing in the world.

 

«How do you always end up in isolation when we have to work out here?» The girl didn’t sound angry, only slightly annoyed to be left alone to work for a full day, Gally tried to avoid both her question and her gaze, crouched on the grass and working on some bush he had just finished watering.

«Leo come on. You know I hate to be here alone, can’t you try at least?» He sighed moving on the next spot on the ground. «Galileo. - She called, and she never used the full name unless she was pissed or really serious, and right now he couldn’t guess what of the two she was – at least you can look up while I speak. That thing is not going to die if you leave it for a moment.»

When he did, mostly reluctantly, he knew she would burn down the whole garden with a look if she could. The bruise on his cheekbone was still purple, there was some red in his right eye like he had been hit too close to it, his nose was a little crooked too, healing but someone had definitely broke it.

«What. Who. When. Why.» It wasn’t a question, it was an order, there was a fury in her eyes waiting for a name to kill in a very painful way.

«I fell.» And Gally almost became the new victim of that blind fury.

«Bullshit! Maybe you can convince your brother but not me. Who did that?» She gently grabbed his face checking the bruise closely, it looked painful, and probably would cause him a lot of headaches before it healed. Gally tried to back out from her grip and hide again his face under the grey hood letting out a small sniffle.

«Let it go, Liz. It’s not important.»

«It was a guard, wasn’t it? The one with the greasy hair and smelly breath? I’m gonna end him. Oh I swear to you, little one, I’m gonna kill him and give you his head.» He knew her threat was serious, she was always serious when she said these kinds of things, she was always serious when it came of him or Chuck. «There it is. – and she made sure not to say _he_ , like said guard wasn’t even human – I’m gonna use his head as a vase for these lovely roses, just you –» Gally moved as quickly as he could, grabbed her arm and dragged her away before she could jump on the man and rip off his head, literally.

«And then you’ll get in trouble, it’s not worth your attention.»

“ _Besides, it wasn’t him.”_ He thought letting her go when he was sure enough she wouldn’t kill someone.

 

«At least let me throw a punch.» She said casually a few days later, the bruise now a sickly yellow colour, but it was starting to fade, Gally slumped on the seat next to her putting a tray on the table and pushing one plate to Chuck, not before giving him his portion of potatoes.

«He’ll get fat if you keep giving him yours too.» Beth whispered looking as the younger smiled brightly and took the plate, then at Gally who she silently adopted as her own young brother when they first met. «And you’re getting skinny. It’s not good, you know little one? - She smiled as he groaned around a piece of meat – You’re still growing, getting taller and taller. You need to put some weight on those scrawny arms of yours.»

«I promised I’d take care of him.» It sounded so stupid now, he almost forgot when he made that promise to their father but it wasn’t important _when_ , Chuck was his brother and he, being the older one, was in charge of his well-being.

A few minutes later Beth pushed her plate between the two of them nudging at him to eat.

«I’ll have to take care of you, then. I promise. I won’t let either of you down.»

 

For the first time Gally woke up startled, he scanned the room as the last bits of the dream – _Memory_ , he had to correct himself – faded away from before his eyes. He wanted to stand, rush out of the door at the first chance and run all over the corridors to her, he needed to see her at least for a moment, in person, just to be sure he wasn’t imagining her voice answering all his question in his mind, comforting him.

“ _I can’t understand if you’re pissed off, scared or in pain. Care to update me on this sudden change?”_ He broke down in tears when he heard her always so calm and kind, he felt like he was twelve or thirteen all over again, like the day she chose him out of everyone and never left his side until the Maze. “ _I take it as pain, am I correct?”_ Beth asked worriedly, hands closed in fists as she stared in hate at a scientist from the hard table she was strapped on. “ _I would bite this stick who's looking down at me right now if it could make you feel better but they put a damn muzzle on my face.”_

“ _I want to see you Liz.”_ He whispered when he finally found back his voice, mentally speaking at least, and, Good Lord, he really sounded like a child. Through the connection he felt as she relaxed at his words, he could picture her, the real Beth not just a random blank figure without a face, smiling, her features softening just like her voice.

“ _Soon little brother –_ it felt strange and right at the same time, she must have waited and stopped herself all the time since they started talking – _soon we’ll be out of here. I promise.»_

And just like all the times before, times Gally now remembered, he believed her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm deeply sorry for the waiting! I've not gave up on this fic, though it's being a bit tricky to write, especially the next chapter. And summer did not help me on that (hot and humidity definitely work against me and my writing...)  
> BUT! I am here once again! Really slow but definitely writing!!  
> Comments are, as always, welcome, even though it doesn't really happen much in here, let me know what you think.


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